John 7; John 8
1 Later Jesus was going about his business in
Galilee. He didn't want to travel in Judea because the Jews there were looking
for a chance to kill him. 2 It was near the time of
Tabernacles, a feast observed annually by the Jews. 3 His
brothers said, "Why don't you leave here and go up to the Feast so your
disciples can get a good look at the works you do? 4 No one
who intends to be publicly known does everything behind the scenes. If you're
serious about what you are doing, come out in the open and show the
world." 5 His brothers were pushing him like this because
they didn't believe in him either. 6 Jesus came back at them,
"Don't crowd me. This isn't my time. It's your time - it's always your
time; you have nothing to lose. 7 The world has nothing
against you, but it's up in arms against me. It's against me because I expose
the evil behind its pretensions. 8 You go ahead, go up to the
Feast. Don't wait for me. I'm not ready. It's not the right time for
me." 9 He said this and stayed on in Galilee. 10But
later, after his family had gone up to the Feast, he also went. But he kept out
of the way, careful not to draw attention to himself. 11 The
Jews were already out looking for him, asking around, "Where is that
man?" 12 There was a lot of contentious talk about him
circulating through the crowds. Some were saying, "He's a good man."
But others said, "Not so. He's selling snake oil." 13 This
kind of talk went on in guarded whispers because of the intimidating Jewish
leaders. 14 With the Feast already half over, Jesus showed up
in the Temple, teaching. 15 The Jews were impressed, but
puzzled: "How does he know so much without being schooled?" 16 Jesus
said, "I didn't make this up. What I teach comes from the One who sent
me. 17 Anyone who wants to do his will can test this teaching
and know whether it's from God or whether I'm making it up. 18 A
person making things up tries to make himself look good. But someone trying to
honor the one who sent him sticks to the facts and doesn't tamper with
reality. 19 It was Moses, wasn't it, who gave you God's Law?
But none of you are living it. So why are you trying to kill me?" 20 The
crowd said, "You're crazy! Who's trying to kill you? You're
demon-possessed." 21 Jesus said, "I did one
miraculous thing a few months ago, and you're still standing around getting all
upset, wondering what I'm up to. 22 Moses prescribed
circumcision - originally it came not from Moses but from his ancestors - and
so you circumcise a man, dealing with one part of his body, even if it's the
Sabbath. 23 You do this in order to preserve one item in the
Law of Moses. So why are you upset with me because I made a man's whole body
well on the Sabbath? 24Don't be nitpickers; use your head - and
heart! - to discern what is right, to test what is authentically
right." 25 That's when some of the people of Jerusalem
said, "Isn't this the one they were out to kill?26 And here he
is out in the open, saying whatever he pleases, and no one is stopping him.
Could it be that the rulers know that he is, in fact, the Messiah? 27 And
yet we know where this man came from. The Messiah is going to come out of
nowhere. Nobody is going to know where he comes from." 28That
provoked Jesus, who was teaching in the Temple, to cry out, "Yes, you
think you know me and where I'm from, but that's not where I'm from. I didn't
set myself up in business. My true origin is in the One who sent me, and you
don't know him at all. 29 I come from him - that's how I know
him. He sent me here." 30 They were looking for a way to
arrest him, but not a hand was laid on him because it wasn't yet God's
time. 31 Many from the crowd committed themselves in faith to
him, saying, "Will the Messiah, when he comes, provide better or more
convincing evidence than this?" 32 The Pharisees, alarmed
at this seditious undertow going through the crowd, teamed up with the high
priests and sent their police to arrest him. 33 Jesus rebuffed
them: "I am with you only a short time. Then I go on to the One who sent
me. 34 You will look for me, but you won't find me. Where I
am, you can't come." 35The Jews put their heads together.
"Where do you think he is going that we won't be able to find him? Do you
think he is about to travel to the Greek world to teach the Jews? 36 What
is he talking about, anyway: 'You will look for me, but you won't find me,' and
'Where I am, you can't come'?" 37 On the final and
climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, "If anyone
thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Rivers of living
water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this
way, just as the Scripture says." 39 (He said this in
regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. The
Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.) 40 Those
in the crowd who heard these words were saying, "This has to be the
Prophet." 41 Others said, "He is the Messiah!"
But others were saying, "The Messiah doesn't come from Galilee, does
he? 42 Don't the Scriptures tell us that the Messiah comes
from David's line and from Bethlehem, David's village?" 43 So
there was a split in the crowd over him. 44 Some went so far
as wanting to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him. 45 That's
when the Temple police reported back to the high priests and Pharisees, who
demanded, "Why didn't you bring him with you?" 46 The
police answered, "Have you heard the way he talks? We've never heard
anyone speak like this man." 47The Pharisees said, "Are
you carried away like the rest of the rabble? 48 You don't see
any of the leaders believing in him, do you? Or any from the Pharisees? 49 It's
only this crowd, ignorant of God's Law, that is taken in by him - and
damned." 50 Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus
earlier and was both a ruler and a Pharisee, spoke up. 51 "Does
our Law decide about a man's guilt without first listening to him and finding
out what he is doing?" 52 But they cut him off. "Are
you also campaigning for the Galilean? 53 Examine the
evidence. See if any prophet ever comes from Galilee." Then they all went
home.
1 Jesus went across to Mount Olives, 2 but
he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down
and taught them. 3 The religion scholars and Pharisees led in
a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain
sight of everyone 4 and said, "Teacher, this woman was
caught red-handed in the act of adultery. 5 Moses, in the Law,
gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" 6 They
were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring
charges against him. 7 They kept at him, badgering him. He
straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the
stone." 8 Bending down again, he wrote some more in the
dirt. 9 Hearing that, they walked away, one after another,
beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. 10 Jesus
stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn
you?" 11 "No one, Master." "Neither do
I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin." You're
Missing God in All This 12 Jesus once again addressed them:
"I am the world's Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the
darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in." 13 The
Pharisees objected, "All we have is your word on this. We need more than
this to go on."14 Jesus replied, "You're right that you
only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I've come
from and where I go next. You don't know where I'm from or where I'm
headed. 15You decide according to what you can see and touch. I
don't make judgments like that. 16 But even if I did, my
judgment would be true because I wouldn't make it out of the narrowness of my
experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. 17 That
fulfills the conditions set down in God's Law: that you can count on the
testimony of two witnesses. 18 And that is what you have: You
have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me." 19 They
said, "Where is this so-called Father of yours?" Jesus said,
"You're looking right at me and you don't see me. How do you expect to see
the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the
Father." 20 He gave this speech in the Treasury while
teaching in the Temple. No one arrested him because his time wasn't yet
up. 21Then he went over the same ground again. "I'm leaving
and you are going to look for me, but you're missing God in this and are headed
for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me." 22 The
Jews said, "So, is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by 'You
can't come with me'?" 23Jesus said, "You're tied down to
the mundane; I'm in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms
of what you see and touch. I'm living on other terms. 24 I
told you that you were missing God in all this. You're at a dead end. If you
won't believe I am who I say I am, you're at the dead end of sins. You're
missing God in your lives." 25 They said to him,
"Just who are you anyway?" 26 I have so many things
to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if you don't
accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and acts, none of
it matters. That is who you are questioning - not me but the One who sent
me." 27 They still didn't get it, didn't realize that he
was referring to the Father. 28 So Jesus tried again.
"When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am - that I'm
not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. 29 The
One who sent me stays with me. He doesn't abandon me. He sees how much joy I
take in pleasing him." 30When he put it in these terms, many
people decided to believe. 31 Then Jesus turned to the Jews
who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out
what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. 32 Then you
will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free
you." 33 Surprised, they said, "But we're
descendants of Abraham. We've never been slaves to anyone. How can you say,
'The truth will free you'?" 34 Jesus said, "I tell
you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a
dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. 35 A slave is a
transient, who can't come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established
position, the run of the house. 36 So if the Son sets you
free, you are free through and through. 37 I know you are
Abraham's descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because
my message hasn't yet penetrated your thick skulls. 38 I'm
talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you
just go on doing what you have heard from your father." 39 They
were indignant. "Our father is Abraham!" 40 And yet
here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got
straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. 41 You
persist in repeating the works of your father." They said, "We're not
bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God." 42 "If
God was your father," said Jesus, "you would love me, for I came from
God and arrived here. I didn't come on my own. He sent me. 43 Why
can't you understand one word I say? Here's why: You can't handle it. 44 You're
from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a
killer from the very start. He couldn't stand the truth because there wasn't a
shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying
nature and fills the world with lies. 45 I arrive on the
scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with
me. 46 Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading
word, a single sinful act? But if I'm telling the truth, why don't you believe
me? 47 Anyone on God's side listens to God's words. This is
why you're not listening - because you're not on God's side." 48 The
Jews then said, "That clinches it. We were right all along when we called
you a Samaritan and said you were crazy - demon-possessed!"49 Jesus
said, "I'm not crazy. I simply honor my Father, while you dishonor
me. 50 I am not trying to get anything for myself. God intends
something gloriously grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it
about. 51 I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice
what I'm telling you, you'll never have to look death in the face." 52 At
this point the Jews said, "Now we know you're crazy. Abraham died. The
prophets died. And you show up saying, 'If you practice what I'm telling you,
you'll never have to face death, not even a taste.' 53 Are you
greater than Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you think you
are!" 54 Jesus said, "If I turned the spotlight on
myself, it wouldn't amount to anything. But my Father, the same One you say is
your Father, put me here at this time and place of splendor. 55 You
haven't recognized him in this. But I have. If I, in false modesty, said I
didn't know what was going on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I
do know, and I am doing what he says. 56 Abraham - your
'father' - with jubilant faith looked down the corridors of history and saw my
day coming. He saw it and cheered." 57 The Jews said,
"You're not even fifty years old - and Abraham saw you?" 58 "Believe
me," said Jesus, "I am who I am long before Abraham was
anything." 59 That did it - pushed them over the edge.
They picked up rocks to throw at him. But Jesus slipped away, getting out of
the Temple.
